The Commentariat -- June 11, 2012
My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is titled "Liberals Remind Him of Nazis." The NYTX front page is here.
Government Is the Solution (And Liberals Should Say So). E. J. Dionne: "Let's turn Ronald Reagan's declaration on its head: Opposition to government isn't the solution. Opposition to government was and remains the problem. It is past time that we affirm government's ability to heal the economy, and its responsibility for doing so."
TARP o' Marks. In a blogpost, Paul Krugman explains what the Spanish bailout means: It "may -- may -- put a temporary end to the 'doom loop' of funds fleeing Spanish banks, forcing the banks to sell assets, driving asset prices down and creating further doubts about solvency." ...
... AND elaborates in his column: "Put it all together and you get a picture of a European policy elite always ready to spring into action to defend the banks, but otherwise completely unwilling to admit that its policies are failing the people the economy is supposed to serve.... Whatever the deep roots of this paralysis [in Europe & the U.S.], it's becoming increasingly clear that it will take utter catastrophe to get any real policy action that goes beyond bank bailouts. But don't despair: at the rate things are going, especially in Europe, utter catastrophe may be just around the corner."
Jill Lepore has a long, discouraging piece in the New Yorker on the Supremes: "However the Court rules on health care, the commerce clause appears unlikely, in the long run, to be able to bear the burdens that have been placed upon it. So long as conservatives hold sway on the Court, the definition of 'commerce' will get narrower and narrower, despite the fact that this will require, and already has required, overturning decades of precedent. Unfortunately, Article I, Section 8, may turn out to have been a poor perch on which to build a nest for rights." ...
... Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: whatever the Court decides, health care providers and government officials can look forward to a messy, complicated implementation.
New York Times Editors: "The federal courts that have reviewed [the Defense of Marriage Act] since 2010 have found that it fails to meet the most elementary test of constitutionalismy." But Republicans keep defending it anyway.
The Washington Post has published another excerpt from David Maraniss's biography of President Obama. This one is about Barry's days as a basketball player at Punahou High, which had an outstanding team.
Kyrie O'Connor of Salon interviews Gail Collins about Collins' new book As Texas Goes....
Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "... the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meets on Wednesday to consider President Obama's choice to head the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.... For the first time, the president has chosen a geologist for the post, Allison M. Macfarlane of George Mason University, and her expertise aligns with the pressing concerns facing Congress and the nuclear industry."
Ryan Lizza Is an Oracle. In a New Yorker feature, he speculates on what President Obama will accomplish in his second term.
LEAKS!
Grumpy McCain Is a Psychic. Ashley Killough of CNN: "Sen. John McCain continued his blitz against the Obama administration Sunday, saying the president was responsible for the recent national security leaks -- whether he knew about them or not. 'It's obvious on its face that this information came from individuals who are in the administration,' McCain said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'The president may not have done it himself, but the president certainly is responsible as commander in chief.'" ...
... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker on Obama's "press problem" & his penchant for whacking whistleblowers: "... the better way to achieve consistency would be to chase fewer leakers, not more. Instead, the Administration seemed overly alarmed by goading from Republicans like John McCain -- who talked about 'gravely serious breaches of our national security' and wanted not just any old investigation but a special prosecutor -- and treated this as a matter of pride. In trying to look tough, [the administration] gave into bullying, demanding to know who told rather than giving its own policies the hard look they need." ...
... New York Times reporter David Sanger reveals his source to Jake Tapper of ABC News:
Presidential Race
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz Googles racists to give a picture of how important racial animus was in the 2008 presidential election.
News Ledes
** Washington Post: "The nation's largest health insurer will keep in place several key consumer provisions mandated by the 2010 health-care law regardless of whether the statute survives Supreme Court review. Officials at UnitedHealthcare will announce Monday that whatever the outcome of the court decision -- expected this month -- the company will continue to provide customers preventive health-care services without co-payments or other out-of-pocket charges, allow parents to keep adult children up to age 26 on their plans, and maintain the more streamlined appeals process required by the law."
CBS News: "U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson is being investigated in a felony hit-and-run case after allegedly crashing a Lexus into two vehicles in California on June 9, Los Angeles County police have confirmed." Los Angeles Times story here. ...
... AP Update: "Commerce Secretary John Bryson suffered a seizure in connection with two traffic accidents in the Los Angeles area that left him injured and unconscious, the government said Monday." ...
... New York Times Update 2: "By late Monday night, Mr. Bryson informed the White House that he would be taking a medical leave of absence to undergo tests and evaluation and that Deputy Secretary Rebecca M. Blank would assume his duties."
New York Times: "Starting four days of evidence by political leaders about the sway of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers over public life in Britain, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke passionately on Monday about a 2006 story published in The Sun, a Murdoch tabloid, saying his infant son had cystic fibrosis, and denied that his family had given permission for it to appear." The Guardian's liveblog is here.
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Reader Comments (3)
Marie, I rarely read the Doughnut but when he says the word eugenics I was caught. Your response was perfect. The part that scares me the most is the idea that a brain can actually twist reality like this. But this gives me an opportunity to tell the real fact that conservatives would never look at. The entity responsible for the vast majority of abortions due to genetic problems, if one follows the religious view is their God. It turns out that well over 50 % percent of miscarriages are due to identifiable genetic defects. Since 15-20% of known pregnancies result in miscarriages (some very early events are not noticed), that is the major source of 'eugenics'.
In other words, termination of pregnancies because of genetic problems are primarily a result of the actions of mother nature or Doughnuts god, pick one.
P.S. I don't think that a woman ever terminated a pregnancy because of a genetic problem in order to reduce the number of 'defective' humans. It is their fetus and it is never a game.
Seems to me Little Johnny and the Dwarves have painted themselves into a corner with their eagerness to trash Obamacare. No matter what they do, they're going to piss off everyone (except maybe each other, and I wouldn't rule that a safe haven). Amazing.
@Marvin Schwalb. Thanks for the professional perspective. The religious fundamentalist's argument to your logical explanation goes like this: "It's up to God to decide. If God allows the fetus to live, then its his plan." There's a handy corollary to explain this & many of life's random travails: "God never gives you more than you can handle." As for me, I'm with Woody Allen: "... if it turns out that there IS a God, I don't think that he's evil. I think that the worst you can say about him is that, basically, he's an underachiever."
As for my column, I had a hard time writing it because I try not to let my rage show thru my writing, & it was difficult this time. This is the only column I've written that I was tempted to send to the editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal (I didn't) -- not because mine is a great column but because Douthat's is so contemptible. I find it offensive that the Times pay people to write stuff that is extraordinarily cruel to people who actually have to endure such a pregnancy and make a decision about it. Maybe God doesn't give them more than they can handle, but Douthat sure as hell tries to.